Obama's chief tech duties

[Commentary] One decision yet to be made by Obama is carrying out his promise to appoint the country's first chief technology officer. Considering how important the implementation of new technology is for carrying out Obama's vision for future economic development, global competitiveness, transparency, citizen engagement and saving money on government operations, Obama would do himself and the country a huge favor by making sure this position has Cabinet-level status.

Once appointed, Obama should give the CTO the following mandates:

1) Internet evangelist;

2) study of all the benefits of achieving universal, high-speed wireless access to the Internet, including economic and energy efficiencies, environmental benefits, and improvements in transportation, health care and safety;

3) developing a government-wide online platform — call it Citizen.gov if you like — for civic engagement that connects Americans to each other to identify and solve problems;

4) ensure that the Obama administration is the most open, honest and accountable in history by overseeing the creation of a government data commons that pulls together lobbying reports, ethics records, campaign finance filings, regulatory interventions, earmarks, contracts, grants, subsidies — all the ways that outside actors attempt to influence government;

5) encouraging all government agencies, as well as the legislative branch, to make maximum use of new communications technologies to make the processes of government more accessible and participatory;

6) develop a process by which all government agencies are working to reboot themselves in light of newly available technological capacities.

(Micah L. Sifry and Andrew Rasiej are, respectively, editor and founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, an online magazine and annual conference on how technology is changing politics.)